Call Ads

Updated: May 21, 2026

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Ads in WhatsApp Status are available via the Marketing API. Learn more about ads in WhatsApp Status.

This guide explains how to create and publish call ads using the Marketing API from Meta.

Before you start

This guide assumes you have:

An ad account with Meta⁠ with a valid payment method

Uploaded any assets, such as images or videos, to be used in your ads to Meta servers

To make successful calls to all endpoints in this guide, you will need:

A Page access token requested by a person who can perform the ADVERTIZE task on the Page

A person using your app must grant the following permissions:

ads_management

pages_manage_ads

pages_read_engagement

pages_show_list

Recommendations

Be sure to set the open hours for your business in your Facebook Page Settings.⁠

When testing an API call, you can include the access_token parameter set to your access token. However, when making secure calls from your app, use the access token class.

Limitations

The target audience must be 18 years old or older

The phone number included in Call to Action must be from the same country as the target audience

Step 1: Create a Campaign

To create your ad campaign send a POST request to the act_ad_account_id/campaigns endpoint where ad_account_id is the ID for your Meta ad account. Your request must include:

name

objective – set to one of the following supported objectives:

OUTCOME_AWARENESS

OUTCOME_ENGAGEMENT

OUTCOME_LEADS

OUTCOME_SALES

OUTCOME_TRAFFIC

special_ad_categories

Example request

Formatted for readability. Replace bold, italics values, such as ad_account_id, with your values.

curl -X POST "https://graph.facebook.com/v26.0/act_ad_account_id/campaigns" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '{
           "name":"Call_ad_campaign_name",
           "objective":"OUTCOME_TRAFFIC",
           "special_ad_categories":["NONE"],
         }'

On success your app receives a JSON response with the ID for your campaign.

{
  "id": "campaign_id"
}

Step 2: Create an Ad Set

To create an ad set, send a POST request to the act_ad_account_id/adsets endpoint where ad_account_id is the ID for your Meta ad account. Your request must include:

bid_amount

billing_event set to IMPRESSIONS

campaign_id

daily_budget

destination_type set to PHONE_CALL

name

optimization_goal set to QUALITY_CALL for call ads

targeting

Example request

Formatted for readability. Replace bold, italics values, such as ad_account_id, with your values.

curl -X POST "https://graph.facebook.com/v26.0/act_ad_account_id/adsets"
     -H "Content-Type: application/json"
     -d '{
           "bid_amount":"Your_bid_amount",
           "billing_event":"IMPRESSIONS",
           "campaign_id":"Your_campaign_id",
           "daily_budget":"Your_daily_budget",
           "destination_type":"PHONE_CALL",
           "name:"Your_call_adset_name",
           "optimization_goal":"QUALITY_CALL",
           "targeting":{
             "geo_locations": { "countries":["US","CA"] },
             "device_platforms": ["mobile"],
             "publisher_platforms": ["facebook"]
           }
         }'

On success your app receives the following JSON response with the ID for the ad set.

{
  "id": "adset_id"
}

Step 3: Create Ad Creative

The ad creative allows you to add assets to your ads. Carousel, image, text-only, and video ads are supported.

To create an ad creative, send a POST request to the /act_ad_account_id/adcreatives endpoint where ad_account_id is the ID for your Meta ad account. Your request must include:

name

object_story_spec

object_story_spec with a link_data object that defines the call_to_action with type set to CALL_NOW and value as the phone number for your business

Image ad example request

Formatted for readability. Replace bold, italics values, such as page_access_token, with your values.

curl -X POST "https://graph.facebook.com/v26.0/act_ad_account_id/adcreatives"
     -H "Content-Type: application/json"
     -d '{
           "name":"Your_call_image_ad_name",
           "object_story_spec":{
             "page_id": "your_page_id",
             "link_data": {
               "picture": "Your_image_URL",
               "link": "Your_business_page_URL",
               "call_to_action": {
                 "type":"CALL_NOW",
                 "value":{ "link":"tel:+Your_business_phone_number_with_country_code" }
               }
             }
           }
         }'

On success your app receives the following JSON response with the ID for the ad creative.

{
  "id": "ad_creative_id"
}

Step 4: Create the Ad

To create the ad you need to associate the ad creative and the ad set. To create the ad, send a POST request to the /act_ad_account_id/ads endpoint where ad_account_id is the ID for your Meta ad account. Your request must include:

adset_id (from Step 2)

creative_id (from Step 3)

name

status

Ad with creative example request

Formatted for readability. Replace bold, italics values, such as ad_account_id, with your values.

curl -X POST "https://graph.facebook.com/v26.0/act_ad_account_id/ads"
     -H "Content-Type: application/json"
     -d '{

           "adset_id": "Your_ad_set_id",
           "creative": { "creative_id": "Your_ad_creative_id" },
           "status": "PAUSED"
         }'

On success your app receives the following JSON response with the ID for the ad.